Rudi Ball: The Jewish ice hockey star who represented and survived Nazi Germany
Ball, centre, playing for Berliner SC in December 1930
Gordon was a war correspondent, covering the city's fall and the Allies' victory. But in a previous peacetime life, he had reported on ice hockey and Dailley the player. Ball had been the Jewish star of the Germany ice hockey team, who Dailley had faced off against at the 1936 Olympics. Dailley and Gordon were stunned. How had Ball survived the war? How had he escaped Hitler's genocide?Many questions remain, and some answers have led to bigger questions still.Rudi Ball was born in Berlin in 1910, the youngest of three brothers, after Gerhard and Heinz. His father was a German, his mother a Lithuanian Jew.
By then, Germany had already been awarded hosting rights for the 1936 Winter Olympics. Their approach to the Games was a source of confusion, especially as Hitler had made a speech in 1932 in which he described them as "a play inspired by Judaism which cannot possibly be put on in a Reich ruled by National Socialists".
In response, one of his team-mates, Gustav Jaenecke, a tough defender who had also represented Germany at tennis in the Davis Cup, refused to play unless Ball was brought in. The issue was discussed at secret Nazi party meetings and a small delegation travelled to speak with Ball. It was decided that he would be included after all.
There had been international debate about a boycott, with protests raised in several western countries, but the possibility petered out. As host venue Garmisch-Partenkirchen was readied, most of the antisemitic signs in the surrounding villages were taken down. Army trucks ferried soldiers around on unspecified manoeuvres - they were officially there in case snow needed to be moved down the mountains because of unseasonably warm weather.
The next game against Italy was suddenly a must-win. Defeat would have put the Germans out of the competition within the first two days. Whether to provide positive support or a reminder that losing was not acceptable, high-ranking Nazis Rudolf Hess - who was deputy Fuhrer - and Goebbels attended. With their best player barely able to contribute, Germany now faced two decisive fixtures. The first was against an undefeated Great Britain, who had just pulled off what is still arguably the greatest Olympic ice hockey shock of all-time with victory over Canada.
Ball played through his injury, but had little time to recuperate before Germany's next game against Canada. The loser would be eliminated. The rough style of the encounter certainly did him no favours; fights on the ice threatened to spill into the stands as Canada ran out 6-2 winners. Goebbels and Hermann Goering made announcements asking the crowd to remain calm.
Halton noted that a cagey Ball referred to his fellow Germans and his team as "they", rather than "we", throughout their conversation. Mayer, whose father was Jewish, became one of the first female sporting celebrities when she won fencing gold for Germany as a teenager at the 1928 Olympics. She was stripped of her German citizenship as part of the Nazis' antisemitic laws, but accepted an invite to complete at Berlin 1936.
Ball's final game came in January 1943 and a little over a year later, with the Germany's war effort floundering in the east and west, all sports championships in the country were postponed until further notice. Richard says that while Rudi played hockey on Nazi Germany's home front, his uncle - Rudi's brother Gerhard - served in the regime's army.
Dailley, the fellow former player turned soldier who had spotted Ball waiting for food, led an interesting life after the war.
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